This section of CTMQ has undergone the most transformation and growth over the years. I can’t remember how it started – I think with just curious foods or places to eat unique to Connecticut. Then I found some lists that seemed fun and Hoang and I really began enjoying cooking more and more. (In fact, we were featured in a Courant article for our “foodie” -ha – ways.)
Over the years I’ve started and abandoned a few food lists. The fact of the matter is that restaurants close or move a lot and of course menus change. So I settled on only one sort of “best of” list: From Roadfood’s “500 Things to Eat Before It’s Too Late” book. They like their hot dogs, that’s for sure.
The other lists below are purely my creations. And “ingesting” to me includes both food and drink, so you’ll see visits to our vineyareds, breweries and soda makers as well.
Lastly, I don’t consider myself an expert in anything on this page; this is just one guy visiting all the food/drink stuff this one guy deemed important enough to warrant pages on his website. Enjoy.
The Eats
The Drinks
The Stuff We Make
Fried Clams at Lennie & Joe’s Fish Tale in Madison
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Eat
Connecticut Restaurant Tour of the World - Focusing on the more unique places, here!
Michael and Jane Stern’s “Things to Eat in Connecticut Before it’s Too Late”…
Roadfood’s Eat Before you Die List
CTMQ’s Historic & Unique Eating Establishments & Food Items – Oldests, firsts, weird, etc… Check it all out here
CTMQ’s Classic – I mean real Classic Diners – Enjoy here
CTMQ’s Homemade Ice Cream Joints – Another list Hoang can get behind. Damian too. These are in addition to the 7 listed on the above “Best” list. But definitely still worth reading about – and visiting.
CTMQ’s Connecticut Cheese Trail – I made this up, but it’s darn comprehensive: Cheese, glorious Connecticut cheese!
Connecticut Chocolate Trail - This is actually state-sanctioned: Delicious!
Foraging – Fiddleheads, ramps, turnips, morels… I pick it, I eat it. And then you read about it here.
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Hoang enjoying Heritage Trail Vineyard wine in Lisbon (It closed in 2012)
Drink
Old School Soda Makers – Keeping the tooth-rotting tradition alive! I will sample everything from all three and you can read about the experiment here.
Vineyards/Wineries – Follow along our Wine Trail adventures. There are about 33 wineries in the state, believe it or not. And we’re visiting them all. Check it out here.
Breweries, Brewpubs & Cider Mills of Note – I may have to do this list a few times to get it right… But you only need to read about them once, here.
Connecticut Beers – I seek them out and drink them all and tell you about them. You find this enjoyable somehow.
Connecticut Distilleries – There are only a handful, but there were only a handful of breweries a few years ago too. Here they are.
Connecticut Beer Trail – Not my thing
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Make
The Best Recipes in the World Not an original idea either, and not one I’m confident will last on CTMQ. Hoang is an excellent cook. I’m not half-bad. We like spending time together in the kitchen, and we like different foods. So why not cook a bunch of stuff from Mark Bittman’s excellent cookbook and take a picture of it.
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Check out a C-Town grocery store for some unusual food! Try the menudo… Watch out though, the one in New Britain had biting flies that took a chunk from my scalp!
Comment #1 on 10.11.09 at 10:32 amHello;
Comment #2 on 04.28.11 at 6:16 pmIf you want the very best ice cream on the planet….visit RICH FARM ICE CREAM on ROUTE 67 in OXFORD. We have not had better anywhere including the highly touted 4c’s in Centerville,Ma.
Ed
I personally adore Rich Farm Ice Cream, by far the best ice cream I have had in CT and a close second only to Loan Oak’s up in New Hampshire. Love it!!
Comment #3 on 03.09.12 at 1:14 pmYummY!!! Rich’s ice cream is the best (Oxford), Big Dipper (Prospect), and I still love Dippy’s ice cream on Lakewood Rd Waterbury, which used to be Carvel!!
Comment #4 on 06.25.12 at 4:27 pmThink I need to go get some ice cream, right now!
The best ice cream is Salem Valley Frams Ice Cream on 20 Darling Road in Salem, CT 860-859-2980 next to the interchange of Route 11.
Comment #5 on 01.02.13 at 7:14 pm